By Mistake She Kissed a Snake
July 16, 2009
I remember when I was a wee lass my friends and I used to play rhyming games, or clapping games. My head is filled with all the nonsense rhymes we used to chant while we jumped rope, clapped hands in a circle, or just sang for fun. That space in my head probably would have been better served memorizing calculus equations in high school or learning Latin conjugations.
But no, if there were a way to slice open my head and look inside it would be filled with Miss Mary Mack all dressed in black, Miss Lucy who had a steamboat, or a baby depending on whether you were doing the rhyme in from of your parents or not, Tweedle-deedle-dee, My Jolly Playmate, Cinderella dressed in yellow…
Wow, I just need to stop now because I am embarassing myself. Perhaps I could have understood what the hell Jacques Derrida was going on and on about in deconstructionist literary theory if my mind wasn’t filled with such a voluminous amount of useless stuff. Instead I was just faking it in grad school.
Now my daughter has discovered the fabulous world of clapping games. All day long I hear various songs and chants, complete with elaborate hand and body motions.
ABC Hit it
that’s the way uh huh uh huh
I like it
uh huh uh huh
brick wall, waterfall
girl, you think you know it all
but you don’t.
I do.
So poof with the attitude.
Peace,
Punch, Captain Crunch
Bubble gum in my hair
Peanut butter everywhere.
Oh honey, save room up there for some important stuff.
Otherwise one day you are going to be at the grocery store standing in front of the freezer section, trying desperately to remember what it is you went to the store for in the first place. And as you are contemplating the deepest recesses of your brain you are only going to find I went downtown to see Charlie Brown…
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She’s beautiful!
July 16th, 2009 at 3:39 pmMy little girl sings “Down down baby, down by the roller coaster….” “Twista baby, twista baby, your butt stinks!” LOL. It brings back memories….
July 16th, 2009 at 3:41 pmWait. THAT is your daughter? Is she on some accelerated aging program? I swear she is like twice as old as she was maybe five minutes ago.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pmBoth of you might like this, maybe for different reasons:
July 16th, 2009 at 3:56 pmKristen Andreassen, Crayola Doesn’t Make A Color for My Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EELEjeYzfjM
And as you are contemplating the deepest recesses of your brain you are only going to find I went downtown to see Charlie Brown…
Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:00 pmShe is so beautiful - those rhymes are wonderful things to stuff the brain with, much more useful than grocery lists
July 16th, 2009 at 4:00 pmChris, as you well know, that IS the important stuff. Otherwise, you wouldn’t remember all of it so vividly. The memories aren’t just the silly chants, it’s the giggles and friendship and fun that they conjure up when you’re all grown up.
Thanks for writing about this today. I’m in my sixties, and every now and then someone (like you) reminds me of all those hours spent jumping rope to “…in came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the alligator purse…” And those memories always make me smile.
P.S. Your daughter is a great girl.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:04 pmThis must be the one with no personality:-) Chris, she is absolutely stunning…love the blonde highlights from being in the Texas sun. I think she and your 8 year old look very much alike.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:11 pmWhat a beautiful girl you have!
July 16th, 2009 at 4:12 pmHow about
“Bubble gum, Bubble gum, in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?”
Alas, Miss Mary Mack is also burned into my brain too. As I read the lyrics to the chants, I couldn’t help chanting right along with them. There’s something about hand clapping songs that makes you want to sing along. You could always make up some chants that involve calculus problems and geometry proofs. Somehow, I just don’t think they’ll be quite as fun.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:15 pmLove it!!
July 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pmAnd when she starts playing softball you’ll be educated in all the related cheers/claps
July 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pm“Home run hitter up to bat, if I were you I’d scoot your booty back, scoot your booty back.” Over, and over, and over…..Boys never feel the need for that.
She is very beautiful.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:31 pmAMEN!!! I have an almost 7 year old who started chanting various songs complete with hand motions two years ago, it has since passed down to the 5 year old and the 4 year old little sisters. I find myself occasionally singing one and the kdis are nowhere around!!!
July 16th, 2009 at 5:19 pmOK, Is this the chant that has
reeses peices
buttercup
mess with me
i’ll mess you up!
My 5 year old is starting to do it and I have never hear it before. What are the words?
July 16th, 2009 at 5:34 pmWell dammit.
Fine, but if I get into trouble for not getting my work done I’m going to tell my editor that it’s because I suddenly couldn’t stop singing “Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell…” and point them in your direction.
July 16th, 2009 at 5:38 pmDo you find that the kids sing the chants a little different than we did? My sons both sang things differently and when I would tell them the way I sang them, they would roll their eyes and tell me I was wrong.
July 16th, 2009 at 5:45 pmI’d just like to say thank you for sharing the wealth.. now i’m going to spend the rest of the day remembering all those useless rhymes……aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!
July 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pmThis stage seems to last a long time. My daughter’s group of friends did these rhymes until about last year, and she’s 11. To me, the funniest part is that the girls are always surprised to find out that the moms know all the words–”How can you know that? My friend just made it up.”
July 16th, 2009 at 5:54 pmShe is SO pretty!
July 16th, 2009 at 6:52 pmOh, I remember those! We had a lot of skipping rhymes as well.
Man, she is one beautiful child. She’s going to be a knock-out when she’s grown up. Good thing she has 6 brothers…
July 16th, 2009 at 7:19 pmWhat a beautiful little girl !
July 16th, 2009 at 7:31 pmOh my gosh–my 8 year old LOVES these rhymes…I tried to teach her some of the ones you mentioned and she just rolled her eyes because clearly the ones I know are “NOT AT ALL THE SAME, MOM”. Sadly, as I was reading your post, I was chanting along
July 16th, 2009 at 7:49 pmYou’re daughter is beautiful!
When I hear my girls singing the same songs… I just can’t believe they are still around and how long were they around before I was singing them???
Every once in awhile I’ll hear a different twist to the songs I used to sing. “Wait a minute! That’s not how you sing that song! It goes like this…” Then I’ll tell them the way WE used to sing it “back in the day”. Then I wonder if I’M singing it the wrong way?? Would my mom have said “That’s now how WE used to sing it!”?
July 16th, 2009 at 7:51 pmShe is so gorgeous!
July 16th, 2009 at 8:18 pmThat is one beautiful girl. Love the tan.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:25 pmOh yes and making up handshakes!
July 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pmMy daughter was in shock and awe the other day when I finished a chant that she was stuck on ‘bean too red, I wanna go to bed…..’
Love the post…so many memories
Your daughter is beautiful!!!
July 16th, 2009 at 10:18 pmShe is a beauty! Miles and she will introduce the dreggs of parenthood to you…the phone calls, the visits, the notes, the incessant (Is ……home?) infatuations.
Been there, done that. Yours is a double duty in a row!!
July 16th, 2009 at 10:56 pmCan I just say that she is so friggin’ cute!!
July 16th, 2009 at 10:58 pmI am now going to google those chants because I forgot some of the words. I do remember thinking I was really cool getting to say swear words in “Miss Lucy” and fooling my parents.
I know you probably hear this all the time but, your girl, she is beautiful!
Chris says: Thank you.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:02 pmDaisies, clapsies, roll your hands, touch backsies — and on and one while you played with a tennis ball.
Thanks for jiggling the memory…I loved all of those rhymes and games. I loved being a girl, actually.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:58 pmHilarious and only too true!!! And your daughter IS so precious. She looks like she’s got lots of pop! (our highest compliment for any kid, or any person, for that matter.)
July 17th, 2009 at 12:32 amOh my, the things that lurk in the recesses of the mind. I glanced at your post title in ‘Bloglines’, and then round and round my mind went the words:
‘By mistake she kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take?’
- But I couldn’t for the life of me remember the rest of it. I had to Google to find that, of course, it was ‘Cinderella dressed in yeller’.
And there’s five minutes of my life which I shall never reclaim…
July 17th, 2009 at 7:01 amI grew up in the city but we said our rhyme country style: Cinderella dressed in yella…
July 17th, 2009 at 7:48 amAlso, she’s really beautiful, I love the highlights in her hair and isn’t it great that she can entertain herself while watching her brothers play ball?
July 17th, 2009 at 7:50 amI had a deprived childhood–I know none of these. But your daughter is, and is going to be, a stunner. Good thing she’s got all those brothers to keep a beau in line.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:03 amThanks for sharing she is beautiful and so happy
July 17th, 2009 at 8:36 amFor Melissa:
“Peanut Butter Reese Cup”
“Mess with me I’ll mess you up.”
“Bang Bang Choo Choo train.Lets see do her thing”
I can’t
“Why not?”
I just can’t
“Why not?”
My back aches.The sun’s tooo bright. I shake my booty from left to right.
Or atleast that is how my kids said it :o)
“to the left, to the right,to the left right,left right”
Fun post! Brings back a lot of memories, of my own, and of my kids when they were younger - thanks Chris!
July 17th, 2009 at 9:52 amI tried to say INSERT NAME after Let’s see in the third line :o) but apparently it didn’t like how I formatted it :o)
July 17th, 2009 at 9:54 amThat baby girl is stunning…
July 17th, 2009 at 10:30 am“Cee Cee my playmate
Come out and play with me
and bring your dollies, three…”
all I can remember. It must be so fun to have a daughter after all those boys. I only have boys (4 of them), and I sometimes am sad I won’t get to re-live some of these wonderful things.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:22 amBeautiful pictures.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:11 pmACk Now Miss Lucy and her Steamboat are in my head.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:11 pmI hate to correct you, but Miss Lucy didn’t have a steamboat/baby, Miss MARY did.
Ahem.
Chris says: Uh, nooooooo. It was Miss Lucy. Miss Mary had the buttons-buttons-buttons all down her back-back-back.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pmI did not know it was possible for children to be badasses at such a young age. And I mean that as a compliment.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:24 pmHow is it that I don’t remember any of these rhymes? Or whether we even did them? I guess my brain’s too full of OTHER useless information…
Your girl is just gorgeous and radiates happiness!
July 17th, 2009 at 2:24 pmWhat a beauty she is!
July 17th, 2009 at 3:25 pmShe’s BEAUTIFUL. And I’m an expert on beautiful girls.
July 17th, 2009 at 3:38 pmare there any rhymes/chants for boys? My son asked me. He was not happy when I told him I didn’t know.
Chris says: You know, my boys have never been into the rhymes/chants AT ALL, so I don’t know. Though if my neighborhood is any indication it seems to be a girl thing.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:08 pmmomzen: my 4 yo does that one all day long:
cee cee my playmate
July 17th, 2009 at 8:14 pmcome out and play with me
and bring your dollies three
climb up my apple tree
slide down my rainbow (some say rain barrel?)
into my cellar door (also heard “hang/swing on my cellar door”)
and we’ll be jolly friends
forever more more more!
woah!
July 18th, 2009 at 4:52 pmshe is the most stunning girl!
lucky she’s got brothers!! lol
Okay, I just needed to say that I love your blog. I’ve commented before, but logging on to your site makes me smile. Every. Single. Time.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:58 pmMy son brought home the chant you have along with the pictures from his friends at school, but they leave out the “bubble gum in my hair, peanut butter everywhere” part.
Miss Lucy has a steamboat in most places, but in some parts of the country, it is, indeed, Miss Mary.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:47 pmHow well I remember those rhymes as well. My favourite was miss mary had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell..you know the rest. Love your writing!
July 18th, 2009 at 6:02 pmOh my gosh, Chris, are you ever in trouble when that adorable thing progresses through life ten more years into teenage-dom!
July 18th, 2009 at 6:17 pmOr “Ish kabibbly ottendot, bobo bedeetendot, slide, slide, hip gonanna gonnana go squat.” THAT’s what takes up space in my brain.
July 20th, 2009 at 3:16 pmMy 5-yr-old is on the brink of this. I know it will be fun for about the first month and then I will be begging for mercy.
July 20th, 2009 at 3:50 pmThis is in the tops of my favorite posts ever. Beautiful.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm